Young People Use Drugs for Dementia to Boost Brain Power

The survey also found that young people use drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to boost brain power.

Around 1% of 14 to 18-year-old admitted they took the drugs to improve their focus, concentration or memory. The survey was done by Ipsos Mori for the Wellcome Trust, Britain's largest biomedical research charity. It surveyed more than 1,000 adults and 460 young people.

Nine of them admitted they took drugs for conditions like ADHD or dementia, but only two could name specific drugs like Ritalin, Donepezil, Provigil or Aderall.

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Researchers believe if the 1% is an accurate representation of Britain, then that means around 38,000 young people have tried prescription drugs to boost cognitive performance.

Two percent of adults also admitted to taking the drugs.

It is believed this survey gives the most accurate picture of how much cognitive enhancing drugs are used amongst the public. Other surveys, like those in Nature magazine and New Scientist, surveyed people online. Those surveys found a much higher drug use.

In the Nature survey, it was found that one in five used drugs like Ritalin and Provigil to increase cognitive performance. Thirty-eight percent admitted to using drugs in the New Scientist survey.